Hey, would
you lend me your soapbox for a moment? Thanks.
I just read an article that made my
blood curdle and my eyes tear up. A Virginia schoolboard voted to restore
Confederate names to two schools. The schools had been previously named after
Confederate Gens. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby.
They were changed four years ago in what I feel was an appropriate vote to
remove the vestiges of the Old South and the history of racism and segregation.
Now
they have voted to change Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary
School back to their former Confederate names. Because it’s 2024 and the
history of the South should not be forgotten, apparently. Proponents of the
plan to restore the names stated, “I ask that when you cast your vote, you
remember that Stonewall Jackson and others fighting on the side of the
Confederacy in this area were intent on protecting the land, the buildings and
the lives of those under attack,” said a woman urging the board to restore the
Confederate names. “Preservation is the focus of those wishing to restore the
names.” And “that revisiting this
decision is essential to honor our community’s heritage and respect the wishes
of the majority.”
Which
is the stupidest pile of crap I have ever heard. The Confederacy lost the war.
They were traitors to the Republic and Democracy. Losers don’t get buildings named
after them. They belong in the history books as the losers of the war and that
is it. There was no honor in their cause. It was to keep slavery as an American
institution. Which is an absolute moral wrong. Without question. The bondage of
humans by other humans is abhorrent and vile and we should not honor those that
wanted to sustain that institution.
The
Lost Cause narrative espoused by the Daughters of the Confederacy in the early
20th Century is absolute nonsense and any “honorarium” for traitors
should be resoundingly rejected. The romanticism of the Civil War by Southern
revisionists should be absolutely rejected. It was wrong then and it is wrong in the 21st
Century.
Yet, I’m
not surprised by this disgusting move by the “majority” in Virginia. It fits
part and parcel with the current wave of nostalgia politics. This strange
yearning to go backwards in time to remove women’s rights, return to
segregation, expel those different than White Christians and basically a want
for days when white men could do whatever they wanted with impunity. It’s a baffling
trend in this country and frankly if you believe any of those things are good,
then quite frankly, you’re an asshole who should be shunned and set adrift on
an iceberg. While on fire.
The
worst kind of asshole too, pockmarked, and oozing smelly puss, while smeared
with diarrhea. The worst of the worst of
the very and absolute worst. That Grinch song, it’s about you. I’d rather you just curled up into a festering pile of dog
shit and fucked right off. Because if you think you’re better than anyone, or
think the Country was better in the 1950’s, or your rights as an American supersede
the rights of other human beings, then you can just go to hell.
I’m
really exhausted by these assholes and their “All for me and none for thee”,
attitudes. I can’t contain my absolute disdain for them. I can no longer try to
see the other side of the conversation. Any side that actively advocates for the
Lost Cause, White Christian Nationalism, the politics of division, or that sews
hatred, bigotry, and nostalgic whimpering for the “good old days” can just go
fuck themselves. I won’t waste any more time on them.
Okay,
here’s your soapbox back. Thank you for letting me borrow it.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/09/us/shenandoah-county-confederate-school-names-reaj/index.html
